Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1887-10-14
FOREIGN CORPORATIONS.

| OMctHl Communication from Attorney
General HOgg to the Secretary of State.
! Special TO the Gazette.
AUSTIN, Tex, Oct. 13.-The following
letter from the Attorney General to the
Secretary is made public:
ATTORNEY-GENERAL's OFFICE,
AUSTIN, Ten, Oct. 8, 1851. (
Hon. j. NJ Moore, Secretary of state, austin.
Tex.
SIR-By letter of the 9rd inst. you
transmit for inspection to this Depart
ment the charter of the Matador Land
and Cattle Company, and with reference
to it ask: First, whether the same may
be legally filed under the act of April 2,
1887. Second, what is the legal fee de-
mandable by the Secretary of State for
filing it? Third, whether it is competent
for you as Secretary of State to grant a
limited permit authorizing said company
to engage in one or more species OF bust
ness ep, CITED among the objects thereof.
The charter referred to certainly is li0-
eral enough in the declaration OF the pur-
poses for which it was created to embrace
about all the subjects included within The
general business domain Of the most
prosperous commercial community. 1t
purports to have been incorporated in
Scotland, and among other subjects it has
in view and claims to have authority for,
are to acquire and hold, to use and man
age, to sell, lease or otherwise dispose of
lands, hereditaments, real property, and
any interest in real property of every de-
scription and tenure, situated in the Uni.
ted States OF America, and to develop the
same in such manner as the company may
think fit. To this end it pro-
poses to cultivate its lands, to
buy, breed, raise and sell all kinds of live
stock; to erect factories, stores and
other buildings thereon; to trrigate, drain
and plant it; to construct waterworks,
canals, wharVes, harbors, roads, RAILWAYS,
ETC., on It; to promote immigration and
settle it; to slaughter live stock and deal
in dead meat, hides and tallow; to manu-
facture the products of the country and
to carry on any trade, business or under
taking deemed by the company conducive
to the development of it's property, etc.
In addition to the expressed and lead
ing object Of owning and holding real es-
tate and Of developing it IN all the ways
known to agriculture and horticulture
and to the sciences and arts this peculiar
"invlslble being" of Scotch incubation
proposes w 4AhPO4b auo CApOIG
grain and stock; to become carriers by
land and by water; to engage in a kind
OF banking business by dealing in bills
OF exchange and issuing its obligations
bearing interest for q limited period or
in perpetuity; to unite with or absorb or
to buy the charters or franchises Of other
companies besides to indulge in many
other enterprises great and small, pecu-
lie md inf 81
AS comprehensive as ali this seems to
be, the reasons Of it can be best under
stood by the declaration of the company
itself to the effect that its business is not
to be carried on at its home, in Scotland,
or anywhere else in the United Kingdom
OF Great Britain; and that "the dissolu-
ton OF the company may be determined
on by the company for any reason what
ever"
II the charter of this company can
be filed that of any other known to cor
poration law can also be admitted into
Texas.
1t claims to be q corporation. This is
not here conceded, but for the purposes
of an answer to your question, grant 1t to
be one; and what then is it's legal status
in this country?
Its leading object is to own and improve
lands, except in the country OF its incor-
porstion. To this end it claims especial
privileges.
Is such corporation permissible under
Texas lsWs? Upon the principles of
comfy SO universally recognized and
upheld in the different states foreign cor
porations which are not expressly or
implicitly forbidden by their respective
constitutions or laws to transact business
outside OF the state Incorporating them
are permitted to operate In the various
states OF the Union. This general rule is
subject to the following qualifications:
The comfy referred to does not extend so
far that state will allow q foreign cor
poration to exercise any extraordinary
franchises, or do any act contrary to the
laws or the public policy of the state as
Indicated by its legislation, etc. Taylor
on Corporations, section 3S5
Then does not this company propose to
exercise extraordinary franchises, not